The Development of the Urban-Rural Cleavage in Anglo-American Democracies.

We provide a mixed-methods, comparative analysis of the development of the urban-rural electoral cleavage in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States from the early 20th century to the present. Using aggregate election results, electoral district boundary files, and electoral district population measures, we construct a new comparable dataset of district election results and urbanity for the lower house of the legislature in each country. We use this dataset to measure the importance of the urban-rural divide for election outcomes across countries and time. We find that the cleavage has widened over time in each country, each arrived at its current urban-rural divide via a distinct developmental trajectory, which we interpret with reference to secondary literature. We conclude by discussing the significance of our findings for theories of both the causes and consequences of urban-rural divides and discuss the implications of our work for the comparative study of urban-rural cleavages.

The Ideological Structure of Municipal Non-Ideology.

This paper explores the structure of elite disagreement about the ideological or nonideological character of municipal politics. I propose two possible relationships between a representative's own ideology and their beliefs about the character of municipal politics: an "ends-against-the-middle" pattern, in which ideologues on the left and right embrace an ideological vision of municipal politics, whereas moderates insist that municipal politics is not ideological; and an "asymmetric visions" pattern, in which individuals on the left endorse an ideological view of municipal politics and those on the right oppose it. I use new survey data from more than 800 mayors and councillors in Canada to assess these possible relationships. While both are supported by the data, the asymmetric visions pattern is the stronger of the two: the nonideological view of municipal politics is most firmly embraced by municipal politicians of the moderate right, while the ideological vision is most common among representatives on the left. This pattern, I argue, is in keeping with a century of municipal political history and should be incorporated into our theories of municipal elections, representation, and policy disagreement.

Closest to the People? Incumbency Advantage and the Personal Vote in Non-Partisan Elections.

Do incumbents dominate non-partisan elections because of an especially large personal vote? This question has important implications for understanding the causes of incumbent success and the benefits or drawbacks of non-partisan elections. This paper uses a natural experiment, combined with three original datasets, to estimate the size, persistence, and consequences of the personal vote in a large non-partisan city election. We first use individual-level survey data to show that individuals assigned quasi-randomly to a new incumbent are substantially less likely to support the incumbent. We use a second survey, one year later, to demonstrate the persistence of this effect. Finally, we use historical election results to simulate the electoral consequences of the personal vote; we find that the personal vote is sufficiently large to affect one in four incumbent races. We conclude that the personal vote, while large and important, is not sufficient to explain incumbent dominance in non-partisan contests.

Do COVID-19 Policies Affect Mobility Behaviour? Evidence from 75 Canadian and American Cities.

We construct a new measure of the aggressiveness of COVID-19 policies in 75 Canadian and American cities and estimate the effect of these policies on mobility patterns in each city. Using a new dataset of five municipal COVID-19 policy indicators for each of our 75 cities, combined with 11 provincial/state policy indicators, we estimate a daily measure of the "aggressiveness" of the provincial/state and municipal COVID-19 policy mix in each city. We then estimate the effects of these policies on subsequent mobility behaviour using dynamic time series models. We find strong evidence of policy effects on subsequent mobility behaviour, but few overall differences between Canadian and American cities. We discuss the significance of our findings both for COVID-19 policy research and for other comparative urban policy research in multilevel policy environments.

Les auteurs proposent une nouvelle mesure de la vigueur des politiques visant la COVID­19 dans 75 villes canadiennes et américaines et estiment les répercussions de ces politiques sur les profils de mobilité dans chaque ville. À l'aide d'un nouveau jeu de données sur cinq indicateurs relatifs aux politiques municipales visant la COVID­19 pour chacune des 75 villes, qu'ils associent à 11 indicateurs relatifs aux politiques provinciales ou étatiques, les auteurs élaborent une mesure quotidienne estimative de la « vigueur ¼ de la combinaison de politiques provinciales ou étatiques et municipales visant la COVID­19 dans chaque ville. Ils estiment ensuite les répercussions de ces politiques sur le comportement de mobilité subséquent au moyen de modèles dynamiques de séries chronologiques. Les résultats qu'obtiennent les auteurs corroborent manifestement les répercussions des politiques sur le comportement de mobilité subséquent, mais les différences qu'ils observent entre les villes canadiennes et américaines sont globalement peu nombreuses. Les auteurs traitent de la signification de ces résultats tant pour la recherche sur les politiques visant la COVID­19 que pour la recherche comparative sur d'autres politiques urbaines dans des environnements où les décisions relatives aux politiques sont prises par plusieurs ordres de gouvernement.

Identifying and critically examining government legislation relevant to children's dental caries in Calgary, Alberta, Canada: a health inequities lens.

OBJECTIVES: Children's dental caries is an important and urgent public health concern that is largely preventable. Using a social equity framework, our objectives were to identify and critically examine government legislation relevant to the issue of children's dental health in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. METHODS: We conducted a systematic, gray literature search of federal, provincial (Alberta), and municipal (Calgary) statutes and bylaws related to children's dental caries, through the relevant law databases. Eligibility criteria were applied for document screening and selection. Data extraction and synthesis pertained to objectives of the legislation (policy task), relevant agent or actor (level of government), and upstream or downstream focus, in terms of potential impact on social inequities in health. RESULTS: Legislation (n = 114) was retrieved and grouped into eight policy tasks. Most legislation fit under the policy tasks: protection of public safety and health promotion (n = 40) and benefits and compensation (n = 27). Federal and provincial governments have greater involvement in children's dental caries than municipal (Calgary) government. The majority of legislation was classified as upstream in orientation (e.g., improving living and working conditions; macro-level policies). CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of legislation relevant to children's dental caries reveals policies that are more often upstream in nature, and unsurprisingly are multijurisdictional. Despite this, there remains a high prevalence and inequitable distribution of children's dental caries in Canada. This suggests that the nature of upstream involvement and fragmented government involvement is ineffective in tackling this pervasive and urgent public health issue. Implications for children's dental health are discussed.